melt

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb To be changed from a solid to a liquid state especially by the application of heat.
• intransitive verb To dissolve.
• intransitive verb To disappear or vanish gradually as if by dissolving.
• intransitive verb To pass or merge imperceptibly into something else.
• intransitive verb To become softened in feeling.
• intransitive verb Obsolete To be overcome or crushed, as by grief, dismay, or fear.
• intransitive verb To change (a solid) to a liquid state especially by the application of heat.
• intransitive verb To dissolve.
• intransitive verb To cause to disappear gradually; disperse.
• intransitive verb To cause (units) to blend.
• intransitive verb To soften (someone's feelings); make gentle or tender.
• noun A melted solid; a fused mass.
• noun The state of being melted.
• noun The act or operation of melting.
• noun The quantity melted at a single operation or in one period.
• noun A usually open sandwich topped with melted cheese.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To become liquid through heat; be changed from a fixed or solid to a flowing state by heat.
• To suffer dissolution or extinction; be dissipated or wasted.
• To be softened to love, pity, tenderness, sympathy, or the like; become tender, mild, or gentle.
• To be weakened or broken; be subdued, as by fear.
• To pass, as one thing into another, so that the point of junction is imperceptible; pass by imperceptible degrees; blend; shade.
• To reduce from a solid to a fluid state by means of heat; liquefy; fuse: as, to melt iron, lead, wax, or tallow; to melt ice.
• Loosely, to make a solution of; liquefy by solution; dissolve: as, to melt sugar in water.—
• Figuratively, to soften, as by a warming and kindly influence; render gentle or susceptible to mild influences, as to love, pity, or tenderness.
• Synonyms To mollify, subdue; Melt, Dissolve, Thaw, Fuse. Two words, … popularly confounded, though scientifically very distinct, are melt and dissolve. The former signifies to bring a substance from a solid to a liquid condition by the agency of heat alone; the latter signifies the bringing about of this result by distributing the particles of the substance acted on among the particles of another substance which is itself liquid, and this process is termed the solution of the solid substance. Thaw differs from melt, in being applicable only to substances whose ordinary condition is that of a liquid, and which have become solid in consequence of the abstraction of heat, and therefore return to the liquid condition as if of themselves. (Chambers's Journal.) Dissolve is much used as a synonym of either melt or thaw. Fuse is sometimes synonymous with melt (as, to fuse a wire by electricity), but it is more often used of melting together: as, bell-metal is made by fusing copper and tin. See the definitions of these words.
• noun Same as milt.
• noun The melting of metal; the running down of the metal in the act of fusion.
• noun The charge of metals placed in a cupola or pot for melting.
• noun Any substance that is melted.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun (Zoöl.) See 2d milt.
• intransitive verb To be changed from a solid to a liquid state under the influence of heat.
• intransitive verb To dissolve.
• intransitive verb To be softened; to become tender, mild, or gentle; also, to be weakened or subdued, as by fear.
• intransitive verb To lose distinct form or outline; to blend. See fondue.
• intransitive verb To disappear by being dispersed or dissipated.
• transitive verb To reduce from a solid to a liquid state, as by heat; to liquefy
• transitive verb To soften, as by a warming or kindly influence; to relax; to render gentle or susceptible to mild influences; sometimes, in a bad sense, to take away the firmness of; to weaken.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun Molten material, the product of melting.
• noun The transition of matter from a solid state to a liquid state.
• noun The springtime snow runoff in mountain regions.
• noun A melt sandwich.
• noun A wax-based substance for use in an oil burner as an alternative to mixing oils and water.
• noun UK, slang an idiot.
• verb ergative To change (or to be changed) from a solid state to a liquid state, usually by a gradual heat.
• verb intransitive, figuratively To dissolve, disperse, vanish.
• verb intransitive, colloquial To be very hot and sweat profusely.